Four Elements of Scrapbooking Stories

unlike a book or a photo, we get to use a variety of elements to tell our story in our scrapbooking pages. I thought today, I’d look at some of the elements of scrapbooking stories. And, I thought I might harken back to one of the first road trips that my husband and I took took together- long before we got married.

Four Elements of Scrapbooking Stories

We’ve stopped at quite a few and passed on a few detours to others- like Carlsbad (We were so close when we were in Sonora- just a few more hundred miles- “just”, right?) or the one in Missouri at least an hour north of where we caught Route 66. We’re always happiest on vacations when we can get out in nature- and I have to admit, there’s nothing like exploring with you by my side. I love that feeling of being safe and free to wander where the spirit takes me. (Because you never know when, in your travels, turkeys are going to scare you, right? At least in cave, that doesn’t happen.)

The Story– It sounds obvious right. But it starts with the story of course. Since we’re going to New Braunfels for a short while this week, sharing this layout seems appropriate. We won’t be floating the river- it’s just too cold for sure. But, truth be told, it wasn’t that much fun to float the river that trip either- it was too low. But, what happened as a result, is how this layout began. We went to visit several caves and have done so on so many trips over the years. I wanted to document that in this layout.

Scrapbook Idea- No Sequence of Events Here- One of the things we get to do as scrapbookers is tell stories that aren’t about a sequence of events. In both the pictures and the journaling, this page shares snippets of stories that happened over time. Don’t be afraid to mix things us and do pages that span time.

The Pictures– Sometimes we can be tempted to get this backwards- we have the pictures, now let’s scrapbook the story. But, I wholeheartedly believe it has to start with the story- we have to want to scrapbook the story in the pictures before we sit down to scrapbook the pictures. But, pictures are most often a part of the story we are telling. In this case, the pictures span something like 15 years. The one top left is probably the first picture I have of my husband. It’s pre digital of course- why did we only take pictures when we were on trips or something special was happening? Let’s not make that mistake in these our digital days.

The Design & Supplies– It’s in this step that it’s easy to lead ourselves and those that view our pages astray from the story. In a layout like this, the design needs to bring order to all that chaos. There are 17 pictures on this page. Can you imagine if they didn’t have any organization or order? Using elements that enhance the story and have meaning enhances the story- in this case the viewfinder. Did you all get viewfinder slides when you were on vacation as a child? I did when we went to Carlsbad. The circles on this page help guide the eye around the design. We have to be intentional about what we add to the story in terms of supplies- or else we only serve to murky up our story.

The Journaling– Contrary to what anyone says, a picture truly can’t say it all. In a layout like this, I really enjoy using anecdotes- like remembering what it was like as a child at Carlsbad. . . or the last line about turkeys reminding my husband and I of the time the pullets scared us to death while walking in Arkansas. Journaling is where we can add our thoughts and feelings about the story we are telling. It’s crucial to any good storytelling layout but, we can’t let that stress us out. Just as with the other elements, we keep the story in mind. What are we trying to say? We tell it to the best of our abilities and let go of the need to get it right.

Do you want to see more examples of me breaking down the elements of a story motivated layout? Check out my Instagram feed or the Instagram hashtag #storymotivatedseries where I share just that.

It’s when we put all these elements of scrapbooking stories together that our story begins to unfold on our pages. How do you use these elements to tell your stories?